BIRMINGHAM, Alabama -- A Jefferson County judge today denied requests for youthful offender status by three teens charged with capital murder in the January shooting deaths of five men at a house in Ensley.

Attorneys for Reginald Mims, 17, Rashad Stoves, 18, and Artavius Underwood, 17, this morning also entered pleas of not guilty to the charges against the three teens during hearings before Jefferson County Circuit Court Judge Stephen Wallace.

Wallace also said the trials of the three teens may be scheduled for spring or summer of next year.

Attorneys for Stoves, Mims, and Underwood today all asked Wallace for youthful offender status in the case based on the teens' ages at the time of the shooting deaths. Also, while all three have had contact with the judicial system as juveniles, none of them had ever faced any major criminal any previous major criminal history, their lawyers said.

The charges alone are not enough to deny youthful offender status, Kira Fontenau, one of Stoves' attorneys, told Wallace.

As each of the teens had their hearings this morning, Wallace told their attorneys that based on youthful offender reports and the information he had about the case, which prosecutors had presented at an earlier hearing, he was denying their request for youthful offender status.

Family members of the victims packed the courtroom today. A few showed their approval of the judge's ruling that denied youthful offender status during the Mims hearing.

With a youthful offender status a defendant would face a bench trial before a judge, rather than before a jury, and face only a maximum sentence of three years in prison for a conviction.

Deputy Jefferson County District Attorney Alan Baty, who successfully argued against the teens being given youthful offender status based on evidence in the case, declined comment after the hearing.

Underwood and Mims were 16 when they were charged in the Jan. 29 shooting deaths of Charles ''C.J.'' Render, 21; Ronnie Render, 42; Demetrius Sanford, 19; Jeffrey Davis Jr., 23; and Jonathan Sanchez, 23. Stoves was 17 at that time.

Maria Fortune, one of the defense attorneys for Underwood, said that they were disappointed in the judge's denial of youthful offender status for the three teens. But, she said the decision was "understandable" based on the nature of the charges.

Wallace in September had denied requests by defense attorneys for the teens to drop the capital charges because of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling this summer that barred automatic no-parole sentences for juvenile killers. If convicted on capital murder charges, the teens would automatically face a life sentence without the possibility of parole, because Alabama law currently has no other sentencing options for a capital murder charge.

The U.S. Supreme Court had previously ruled unconstitutional a death sentence for juveniles under the age of 18 charged in capital cases.

The ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court this summer does not prohibit a juvenile from being sentenced to life without the possibility of parole. State sentencing laws, however, must include an option for a lesser sentence.

Stoves' attorneys had filed an appeal of Wallace's order to the Alabama Criminal Court of Appeals. That court on Nov. 8 denied the appeal.

Wendell Sheffield, one of Stoves' defense attorneys, told Wallace this morning that they had filed an appeal to the Alabama Supreme Court on the issue.

Donald Colee, who with Kay Laumer are defense attorneys for Mims, said they didn't file an appeal to the Alabama Criminal Court of Appeals because any ruling by that court or a higher court on the issue would apply to all defendants in the case.

Emory Anthony, one of the attorneys for Underwood, also again asked for a speedy trial that could begin in January or February. He said that Underwood has been held in jail without bond since Feb. 1.

Wallace said that he planned to set a hearing early next year for pre-trial motions in the cases. "We don't think we will need any motion hearing. ... We just want to go to trial as soon as possible," Anthony said.